


Alliances

by SushiOwl



Series: Pigments and Pentacles [10]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, pretty much just pack feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 18:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4232430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SushiOwl/pseuds/SushiOwl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Aw, Peter made a friend,” Stiles cooed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alliances

**Author's Note:**

> This one ran long. xD There isn't even any sex.

Despite the fact that Peter had no control over the radio in the shop, he didn't regret getting one. It was well worth it to occasionally see Stiles and/or Carina dance around the shop. Today they were side by side, moving their bodies like waves and pumping their hips.

"Been around the world, don't speak the language," the radio crooned. "But your booty don't need explaining. All I really need to understand is when you talk dirty to me."

They kept on dancing, and Peter couldn’t pay attention to his sketch, especially with Stiles moving like that. It almost made him want to learn the dance so they could all do it together. But almost as soon as he had that thought, the song was over.

Stiles went back to his studying as Carina turned down the radio to a respectable level and went back to her station. Peter turned back to his work and didn't look up again until Carina's phone chimed. He gazed at her as she read her text.

"Dan's on his way," she said, looking up toward Peter. "He should be there in about ten minutes."

"Noted," Peter said, going back to his sketch. 

He honestly didn't know where to start when it came to an apprenticeship. He remembered his own quite vividly, but he wasn't sure he wanted to be that kind of master. All he'd done for the first five months of his apprenticeship was clean. He wanted to give his own apprentice some pointers so he could start practicing sooner. There would still be cleaning, of course, but it wouldn't be a focus.

When the doorbell jingled, announcing the arrival of someone, Peter set down his pen and looked over. There was a man there, standing at what had to be at least 6'3", stocky, with dark skin and long dreads pulled up into a ponytail. He had a portfolio case strap over his shoulder. He smiled at Carina when she waved spastically at him.

"You must be Dan," Peter said as he walked toward the front and stood behind the counter. "I'm Peter, the owner."

Dan came over and offered his hand. "That's me. Nice to meet you, sir," he said as they shook hands.

"Oh, not sir. Peter is fine." He have Dan a smile. "Is Dan short for Daniel?"

"Danilo," Dan said, setting his portfolio on the counter and unzipping it.

"Filipino?" Peter asked as he watched, and Dan nodded with a smile. "How old are you?" He asked as Dan turned the folder toward him. The first page was a beautiful print of a brightly colored leopard with a luscious green jungle behind it.

"Twenty-eight. I have an art degree and have been doing commissioned painting for a few years now," Dan said, looking relaxed but he smelled like nerves. "I'm really interested in learning to tattoo."

"Well, a foundation in art will certainly help," Peter told him, continuing through the portfolio. It was all pretty amazing, to be honest. Peter looked up. "You're not what I was expecting," he said.

Dan blinked. "How... so?"

"I had imagined someone much younger and less skilled. I'm happy to be surprised."

Peter went through the rest of the portfolio, commenting as he went. There was a print of a wolf howling to the moon that he particularly enjoyed.

Dan shuffled his feet and cleared his throat. "It's okay that I'm human, right?" he asked.

"It's fine," Peter told him, before he nodded toward Stiles. "That one is human and doesn't even do anything, and I keep him around."

"Wow," Stiles said without looking up. "I feel particularly loved at the moment."

"You know I adore you," Peter said back, before he chuckled as Stiles blew a raspberry in his direction. He turned back to Dan and closed the portfolio. "My apprenticeship lasted a year, which is standard. Apprentices do not get paid."

"That's not an issue for me," Dan said, smiling and taking the portfolio back.

"Good to know," Peter said, before he gestured for Dan to come around the counter, offering him the stool. "Your responsibilities now are to greet the customers, find out what they want, see if they've made an appointment, etc. Carina and I usually rotate, unless they ask for someone specifically. I do the piercings." Peter opened the cabinet next to the counter. "There are liability waivers in here. This folder for piercings, and this one for tattoos. All you really need to do otherwise is make a copy of their driver's license. It's all very easy. You'll figure it out."

"Right," Dan said, nodding as he sat down and faced the door. 

"Do you have spare paper?" Peter asked, and Dan nodded. "Draw a few things for me. We'll say a koi fish then a skulls with a rose. That should take up some of your time."

Dan pulled out some more paper and some pencils, and Peter left him to it, going back to his own work. As he inked his drawing, he saw Carina get up and sidle over to Dan, leaning against his side. They spoke in hushed tones for a little bit, and Peter didn’t hone his hearing toward them, instead giving them their privacy. But he couldn't help but smell Dan's infatuation, and it made him smile privately.

When Carina headed back to her station, she smelled content, and Peter was pretty sure she and Dan were going to be attached at the hip. It was cute, really.

The doorbell jingled, and Peter looked over to see Dan straighten up and fumble over a greeting. He watched Dan interact with the potential client, saw and smelled his nerves ease a bit. Finally Dan gave the woman a smile and nodded, stepping of the stool to head over to Peter. 

"She wants a tongue piercing," Dan said, looking like he was trying his hardest not to fidget with his hands.

"Alright, have her fill out the form and copy her license. I'll set up," Peter said, and Dan nodded with a small 'right, duh, sorry' before he went back to the front. 

After everything was sorted, Peter led the woman, whose name was Evonne, over to the chair, before he went to wash his hands and pull on his gloves. "Okay, stick out your tongue for me," he told her, picking up a small clamp. She did so, and he took a close look. "Now, let me see the underside." She obeyed, and he nodded. "Good, alright. I just wanted to make sure you didn't have any veins running down the middle of your tongue."

Evonne nodded. "I read that would be bad."

“Indeed, it would,” Peter said, picking a 14g needle as he took hold of her tongue with the clamp. “Deep breath in, now let it out.” He jabbed the needle through the center of her tongue, and she let out a surprised squeak of pain. Peter didn’t waste time replacing the needle with a barbell, tightening the balls on each end.

“You’ll bleed for a while,” Peter said, pulling his gloves off and disposing of them and the needle. “And your tongue will be swollen for three to five days, especially tomorrow.” He led her to the front and got a care sheet out of the cabinet, which had detailed care instructions, like what not to eat and drink. “To help with the swelling, eat ice chips. Don’t suck on them. Just let them melt in your mouth,” he said, handing her the sheet. “That details the cleaning routine.”

“Thank you,” Evonne said, looking down at the sheet and smiling. She paid and left, trailing the scent of happiness.

Peter looked to Dan. “Easy, hm?” 

“Not all customers customers are like that, I bet,” Dan said with a laugh.

“True. Just wait until someone comes it and wants a detailed map of something on their foot.” Peter shuddered at the idea, before he looked down at what Dan was drawing. “How’s it coming along?”

“I think I’m done,” Dan said, moving his hands out of the way so Peter could see his work. It was well done, as Peter had thought it would be. The skull had a good shape to it, and the rose was lush and would have been dynamic on someone’s skin. The koi fish was lovely too. It had a good head and arch in its body. It was almost perfect.

“Impressive, but you forgot the anal fin,” Peter said.

“The what?” Dan asked, blinking down at his art.

“The anal fin,” Peter clarified, picking up Dan’s pencil and adding a small fin on the underside of the koi, near it’s tail fin.

“Oh,” Dan said.

“Oh, come on, Peter!” Carina huffed, and Peter looked at her. “You know that he would have used a reference and gotten it right if it had been a real tattoo.”

“Yeah, Peter,” Stiles added, and Peter flicked his eyes over toward him. “Stop being so _anal_.”

Ganged up on like he was, Peter could only throw his hands up before turning to Dan. “I meant it when I said it was good,” he said, rolling his eyes as Carina and Stiles fell victim to the a giggle fit. 

Dan just grinned up at him. “Thanks.”

* * *

Dan fit in quite easily at the shop, quickly falling into the role of apprentice. He cleaned without complaint and got comfortable greeting customers. Along with all the cleaning in the shop, Peter had Dan run errands and handle the shop inventory. When he had all of his work handled, Dan sometimes rolled across the floor on his stool to be close to Carina. It was adorable how much he fell over himself to assist her.

Three months into the apprenticeship, Dan was doing wonderfully. Because of this, Peter ordered something and got a delivery to the shop. After signing for it, he set the box on the counter in front of Dan. “Time for a new activity,” he said, popping a claw and cutting the tape.

Dan set down his sketchbook and watched as Peter pulled out a smaller box and handed it over. 

“You need to learn how to put a tattoo machine together,” Peter said as Dan stared with wide eyes. 

After opening the box, Peter had Dan set out all the parts in an organized grid on the counter. He told him what each part was and what order to put them together in. Dan nodded, looking a little inundated with this task but wasn’t about to back down from a challenge. After he was done explaining, Peter went to his own station to leave Dan to it.

Carina looked like she wanted to go to her friend and help, but Peter gave her a _look_ that had her turning to pretend she was engulfed in her work. He needed to do things alone.

It took about a half an hour for Dan to come over with a put together machine for Peter to inspect. Peter looked it over and nodded. It looked good, but they wouldn’t know for sure until they turned it on. Peter hooked it up to the power supplies and pressed the pedal. The machine stuttered and buzzed, jumping in his hand.

“Well, that’s not right,” Peter said as he took the power cords away.

“Dang it,” Dan said with a sigh. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Peter replied, getting up and walking over to counter to disassemble the machine again. “It could have been worse.”

“It could have exploded,” Stiles supplied.

“Machines can’t explode,” Carina said with a laugh. “There’s no spark and reaction in the parts.”

Stiles stuck his tongue out at her.

With Peter’s guidance, Dan put the machine together again, and then time it ran smoothly. “Well done,” Peter said, patting Dan’s shoulder and earning a smile. “It’s yours now.”

Dan’s head snapped up, eyes going impossibly huge, before he accepted the machine. “You… You’re kidding.”

“I wouldn’t kid about something like this,” Peter said, turning and grabbing the package that they’d set on the cabinet. He pulled out a package of skin-colored silicone squares. “I want you to practice pulling lines.” Peter started toward his station. “Bring your machine and we’ll get started.”

The rest of the day was filled with Dan making stencils and tattooing them onto the practice skins. His first few tattoos were shaky, but Dan eventually figured out the best way for him to hold the machine and brace with the heel of his hand. At the end of the night, Dan was shaking out his hand like it was sore, but he reeked of joy. It was a good day then.

As Peter was locking up, Carina was chatting with Dan. “How are you liking your apprenticeship?” she asked, looping her arms around one of his. “Is he a terrible taskmaster? Are you feeling the need to unionize?”

“Oh, please,” Peter said in a huff. “I’m as gentle as a kitten compared to my master.” He was forever grateful for the apprenticeship he’d received, but his master had been a son of a bitch. And Peter had been a petulant apprentice, so they’d butted heads for a year before his master had clapped him on the shoulder and said teaching him had taken years off his life, but he wouldn’t have changed it for the world. Peter hadn’t cried. Really.

“I’m loving it,” Dan said with a huge smile.

Peter smiled back. “Good.”

* * *

There was no way Peter could have prepared himself. One second he was drawing a mermaid pin up and the next the doorbell jingled and he just _smelled_ him. Peter snapped his gaze up. There was a werewolf at the door, tall and imposing with all his muscles and sharp gaze. Peter flashed his eyes at the wolf and got a flash right back, bright red.

Standing, Peter let a low growl start up in his throat, and he felt Carina come to his side, felt her tension and heard her growl ing. Together they went to the front of the shop to face this trespassing alpha.

“What’s going on?” Dan asked, before he was pulled away by Stiles, who quickly explained.

Peter tilted his chin up. “Is there something I can help you with?” he asked in a low, even tone.

The other alpha gazed at him a moment, before his red gaze faded and the stony look on his face broke. He gave a bashful laugh and brought his hand up to rub the back of his neck. “Uh, yeah, sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to bust in on your territory like that. I just heard this is a place where werewolves could get tatted up.”

Blinking, Peter felt all of the tension just whoosh out of him like a gust of air. He couldn’t help his laugh, a high surprised thing. “Where did you hear that?” he asked, stepping up to the counter and waving the other wolf forward.

“The Howler forums,” the alpha said, smiling widely.

“The what?” Peter asked, his brow furrowing.

“The Howler forums. The forums for werewolves?” Now the alpha looked confused himself.

Peter blinked, before he slowly turned his head and looked at Stiles, who looked guilty but unashamed. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t actually think anyone would read my post,” Stiles said, darting his eyes around. “But other werewolves deserved to get inked too, right?”

“I’ve always wanted a tattoo, but the usual process is scary as fuck, y’know?” Alpha said with a laugh. “My whole pack wants to get tatted up, so I volunteered to be the guinea pig. If it comes out good, they’re probably all going to descend on you.”

Peter laughed, the sound bubbling out of him. “Well, then I hope we don’t disappoint.” He lifted his sleeve to show his wolf and fox shoulder tattoo. “This was done with the wolfsbane infused ink. It turned out really nice.”

The alpha nodded emphatically. “Yeah, that’s clean as shit, yo.” 

Carina came over to show off her arm, leg and foot pieces, and the alpha’s grin kept on getting wider. “I’m so fucking stoked right now,” he said, vibrating with energy. he put his hand out to Peter. “I’m Vince, bee tee dubs. You’re Peter, right?”

“That’s me,” Peter said as they shook hands. “That’s Carina, Dan and Stiles. What were you planning on getting?”

“I wanted a black and grey rose with a banner across it that says Anita,” Vine said, before he laid his hand on his chest. “Right over my heart.”

Peter smiled. “Who’s Anita?”

“My mama,” Vince said with a sigh. “She doesn’t know I’m getting it. It’s for her birthday in a couple weeks.”

Behind him, everyone let out “aww”s, and Peter snickered. “That’s very sweet,” he said. “Give me a few minutes to draw something up. Dan will get the process started in the mean time.”

“Cool,” Vince said.

Peter turned and went to his station as Dan walked up and asked for Vince’s ID, before handing him the release form. It didn’t take long for Peter to draw a rose. He could probably do it in his sleep. As he drew, he listened to Dan and Vince chat.

“I was expecting a place full of wolves, to be honest, if it’s not rude of me to say,” Vince was saying. “I guess you two know what’s up though.”

“I grew up with the paranormal. My parents are both paranormal investigators,” Dan replied.

“No shit? Like they hunt ghosts and stuff?”

“Something like that. My summers when I was a kid were full of going to haunted places to try to talk to the dead.”

“That’s kind of badass, yo,” Vince gushed, and then his focused changed. “What do you do?”

“Me?” Stiles asked.

“Yeah, you’re human too, right?”

“Yeah. More or less. I’m the magical one,” Stiles said, a smile in his voice.

“Really? What kind of magic?” Vince asked, and there was the sound of Stiles’s chair shifting. “ _Holy shit!_ ” he shouted. “Your tattoos are moving! That’s so fuck rad!” At that, Stiles let out the more precious laugh, high and loud and ending on a snort.

Peter finished his drawing and stood, taking it to the front. Vince hopped up off the couch and bounced to the counter. “How’s this?” Peter asked, and vince took in a sharp breath.

“It’s perfect,” Vince said, drumming his fingers excitedly on the counter. “Can I get it now?”

“Of course,” Peter said, gesturing for Vince to follow over to his station. He sat him down on the chair then handed the design off to Dan so he could make a stencil while Peter was washing his hands. When he was done, he took the stencil and moved back over to Vince, who shed his shirt eagerly. Peter stared a moment. “Did you remove your hair for this, or is it a personal care decision?” he asked with a barely suppressed smile.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d say my chest was a good place, so I waxed my whole front and arms. My pack got one hell of a kick out of it, because I’m a pretty furry guy.” Vince rubbed his cheek.

That was kind of adorable really.

Peter cleaned off Vince’s chest and laid the stencil, carefully pulling the paper away. Then he grabbed a mirror and held it up for Vince to have a look. Vince nodded, biting his lip. Peter started setting out his wolfsbane infused inks and grabbed his machine.

“So, like, if I totally cry, don’t tell my pack. They think I’m a tough guy,” Vince said, licking his lips. “I’m kind of a total teddybear.” 

“We won’t tell anyone,” Peter promised. He finished putting plastic over his machine and the cord. “So what’s your pack like? Is it large?” he asked, pretty out of the loop when it came to local packs. He had made a point to keep to himself, not wanting trouble from other weres. But he had been a packless omega then. Things could be different now that he was an alpha.

“Oh yeah, there are like twenty-five of us,” Vince replied, his head tilted back and his brow furrowed at the pain. “We don’t live in the city though. We’re in Oakhurst, near Yosemite. It’s a great place to run under the full moon.”

“Ah.”

“What about you?”

“Just Carina and Stiles,” Peter replied, stretching out the skin of Vince’s pec to pull a curved line without stopping.

“Not him?” Vince asked, barely moving his arm to gesture at Dan, who was immersed in a drawing at the counter.

Peter thought about it. Dan did fit in pretty well in their lives. He and Carina were probably going to be a thing someday. “Hey, Dan,” he said, and Dan looked over. “How would like to be pack?”

Dan blinked and said, slowly, “Yeah that’d be cool.”

Peter snorted. “Alright then.” He turned back toward Vince as Carina let out a squeal and launched herself at Dan to hug him.

Once the tattoo was done, Peter pulled back and set down his machine. He sprayed the area with green soap and wiped away the extra ink and blood. “Go take a look,” he said, nodding to the mirror on the wall. 

Vince shifted out of the seat and shook his legs, probably feeling a bit numb after being still for so long. He hobbled over to the mirror and gasped at what he saw. “Holy shit balls, that’s fucking gorgeous, man!”

Peter chuckled as he pulled off his gloves and stood up. “I’m glad you like it.” He stepped around the chair and smiled as Vince turned in different directions to check out every angle on the tattoo.

“Okay, manly handshake time,” Vince said, sticking out his hand. Peter chuckled and took it, but then Vince huffed out a flustered “aw fuck it” and pulled Peter against his chest, giving him a hug that forced the air out of his lungs and popped his spine. When Vince released him, he stumbled a bit and shook out his arms. “You’re awesome, bro.”

“Thank you,” Peter said, feeling happiness well in his chest. He moved to get the wrapping for the tattoo, but then Stiles came over, stopping him. “Yes?” he asked his mate.

Stiles just gave this little grin and stepped up to Vince. He laid his hand on the tattoo, and his fingers began to glow a soft white. Vince hissed about it being warm, and when Stiles drew his hand back, the tattoo looked like it had healed months ago. Stiles smiled at Vince’s look of wonder, before he turned and gave Peter a quick kiss before heading back to his books.

Vince touched his tattoo with a low gasp. “This is one hell of a day,” he said, before he chuckled. He pulled out his wallet. “How much do I owe you?” He handed Peter the money and a very generous tip, before he headed out, clasping Peter on the shoulder as he went.

Peter heaved a sigh, pleased with himself. He left Dan to break down his station, moving over to put his arms around Stiles’s shoulders, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Aw, Peter made a friend,” Stiles cooed.

“Yeah, I did,” Peter said, rubbing his cheek against Stiles’s. “And I have a feeling it’s only the beginning.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed. I had a lot of fun writing the dialogue in this one. Tell me what you think. :D


End file.
